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“Seventeen missed calls from my mom,” I murmur. “I wonder if everything’s okay.”
Grandma Jo scoffs. “She’s just sour about me being here and not her. She was going on and on last night about how hard she tried as a mother and why none of her girls asks for help when they need something.”
“I’ll text Jules to make sure everything’s okay,” I say, typing out a message.
“Do you want to play Go Fish, Mrs. Barrington?” Giselle asks.
“I would love to, and I told you, call me Grandma Jo.”
Giselle and Grandma Jo sit at the small table in our room, and I look over the hospital’s dinner menu, trying to decide what to have for dinner tonight. A shower would be nice, but I don’t want to leave Olivier for that long. It’s hard enough to let myself sleep when exhaustion takes over.
The swelling in his brain has gone down, which is a good sign. This morning, the doctors brought him out of his medically induced coma. Now we just have to wait for him to wake up.
I’m not letting it show, because I don’t want Giselle to worry, but this part is the hardest. With the medically induced coma, it wasn’t possible for him to wake up. Giselle and I were just here to talk to him and make sure he knows he’s not alone, and to support each other.
But now, when he could wake up at anytime, but hasn’t…this is the part that scares me.
Julia texts me back, and I smile at the message.
Julia: Everything’s fine. Mom just can’t stand not being at the center of everything. How are you?
Me: Okay. Grandma Jo’s about to burn this place to the ground.
Julia: She’s the best at it.
The sound of someone walking into the room makes me look up, and I smile when I see that it’s Anton Petrov, Jonah West, and his wife Rey.
“How’s our favorite team owner doing today?” Jonah asks.
“The swelling is down, so that’s a good sign.”
“Good.”
Rey passes me a white box.
“Banana bread and chocolate chip cookies,” she says, smiling. “I can’t take credit for making them, though.”
“Thank you. We really appreciate it.”
Anton goes over to Olivier and says, “Hey, boss. We beat the shit out of Vegas last night. Thought you’d want to know. It was 4–0.”
Every day, Blaze players have come here to see Olivier. Anton hasn’t missed a day, and he always talks to Olivier as though they’re just having a regular conversation. I like that.
“Is Grandma Jo smoking you at Go Fish again, Giselle?” Anton asks.
“I’m going to win this one,” Giselle says confidently.
“You want to beat a frail, old woman?” Grandma Jo asks.
“Yep.”
Grandma Jo laughs heartily. “Atta girl.”
“I must have missed my invite to the party,” Dr. Gregory, Olivier’s main doctor, says as he walks into the room.
His sarcasm is either due to us subverting their rules about the number of visitors allowed at a time or him being tired of Grandma Jo’s unending bullshit. It doesn’t matter to me, though. We’re getting through this with the support of everyone who loves Olivier.
“We’d like to order some cocktails if you could send a waitress in,” Grandma Jo cracks.
“Mrs. Barrington, I’m pleased to tell you that Dr. Patel will be allowed to examine Mr. Durand.”
She stands up, nodding. “You made the right decision, Dr. Gregory. I’ll go get him.”
“Oh, it was way above me,” he says, putting his hands in the air. “And I can assure you, Dr. Patel is very unlikely to see anything new.”
“Your opinion is noted,” Grandma Jo says as she leaves the room.
Dr. Patel has been in a conference room for several hours, waiting for permission to examine Olivier. He’s a specialist that Grandma Jo paid a fortune to fly in from California for a consult. But if he can tell us anything we don’t already know, it’ll be worth it. Once Olivier is stable enough to move, I want to take him to the best facility in the country for his condition, whatever that may be. I’m hoping to find out from Dr. Patel.
“Want to play the rest of the game?” Giselle asks Anton.
“Yeah, I’ll play,” he says, sitting down on the other side of the table.
“Daphne?” a deep voice calls out in a strained tone.
My heart stops as I turn in my chair and look down at Olivier. His eyes are open, though he’s squinting from the bright light.
“You’re awake!” I cry. “Ohmygosh, you remember my name!”
“What’s going on?” he asks.
“Dad!” Giselle comes over to the bed and throws her arms around Olivier.
“You’re in the hospital,” I explain. “There was an accident. How are you feeling?”
“Like shit,” he croaks. “My head is throbbing.” His chapped lips try to smile. “But you look beautiful.”
Warm tears fall onto my cheeks as I say the words I wasn’t sure I’d ever get to say to him.
